Percy Isles.] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
77 
CHAPTER IV. 
The Percy Isles: anchorage at No. 2. Boat excursions. Remarks on 
the Percy Isles ; with nautical observations. Coral reefs: courses 
amongst them during eleven days search for a passage through, to sea. 
'Description of a reef. Anchorage at an eastern Cumberland Isle. The 
Lady Nelson sent back to Port Jackson. Continuation of coral reefs ; 
and courses amongst them during three other days. Cape Gloucester. 
' An opening discovered, and the reefs quitted. Gefieral remarks on the 
Great Barrier; zvilh some instruction relative to the opening. 
On quitting Broad Sound, we steered for the north-easternmost of 
the Northumberland Islands, which I intended to visit in the way to 
Torres’ Strait. These are no otherwise marked by captain Cook, 
than as a single piece of land seen indistinctly, of three leagues in ex- 
tent; but I had already descried from Mount Westall and Pier Head 
a cluster of islands, forming a distinct portion of this archipelago ; 
and in honour of the noble house to which Northumberland gives 
the title of duke, I named them Percy Isles. 
At noon, the observed latitude on both sides was 21 0 51' 20"; 
the west end of the largest North-point Isle bore S 18 0 W. three or 
four leagues, and the Percy Isles were coming in sight a-head. The 
weather was hazy ; and the wind at E. S. E. preventing us from 
fetching No. 2, the largest isle, we tacked at five o’clock, when it 
bore S. 31 0 to ,54,® E., two or three leagues; No. 5, the north-west- 
ernmost of the cluster, bearing N. 24° W., two miles and a half. At 
dusk the anchor was dropped in 14 fathoms, sandy ground, two or 
three miles from some rocky islets which lie off the west side of 
No. 2. The flood tide at this anchorage came from the north-east, 
one mile per hour. 
1802 . 
September. 
Tuesday 28. 
(Atlas, 
Plate XI.) 
